I unfortunately have really bad news to relay. The owners of Bigge
St. have advised us that they will not proceed with a lease with
SFBACC. Instead, they have accepted a lease offer from the adjacent
tenant (Enterprise Rent A Car). We are reaching out the owner to
fully understand the reasons for their decision and see if there is a
possibility for them to reconsider, but view this as a very low
probability. In the off chance their current proposal falls through,
they...

Due to the generosity of many SFBACC members and friends, we have blown through our first fundraising total of $250,000 and are fast approaching $270,000!
Our next task over the next week is to get the lease negotiated and signed. We then move into the next phase of making dedicated ice happen - submitting a use permit application to the City of Oakland and waiting the 90 days for its review and approval.
During this 90 days we have another critical task to achieve -...

We are very pleased to announce that the member vote was a resounding "YES" for dedicated ice at Bigge Street. Of the 215 members eligible to vote, 163 members submitted a vote with a response of 131 in favor and 32 against. Wow, thank you SFBACC members for your belief in our Dedicated Ice Initiative!
So what is next on our journey to DI? First, we need to complete negotiation of the lease (estimated to be ready for signature by Jan 15). Second, we need to continue...

Patience has finally paid off! We have reached agreement on leasing terms for the Bigge St. property off of 98th St. in Oakland (9812 Bigge St.). The Board reviewed the terms and passed a motion approving the LOI. The Board also decided that to sign a lease we need to have raised at least $250,000; we are currently at $147,000. So now is the time to not only be generous and give to the DI fund, but to get family and friends to support our love for this sport and donate...

Our discussions/negotiations with the owners of the Bigge St. Property continue. We have one remaining, but significant issue regarding the size of the security deposit. They are concerned about the financial risk of an organization such as ours. As a result they are asking for a higher than normal security deposit. We have requested a meeting to discuss a middle ground.
As we reported in the Member forums, we have continued to assess the WCF portable curling facility...

In researching some other clubs that have been successful in their dedicated ice efforts, I came across an interesting article about the Evergreen Curling Club in Portland:
http://www.columbian.com/news/2013/jan/08/evergreen-curling-club-new-clubhouse/
Their new venue became the second dedicated facility on the West Coast when it opened in early 2013. Within the first few months of opening they were able to host regional playdowns and in March 2015, they will host...

Well, a little patience has paid off. We recently received good news on several fronts. First, the property we had submitted a proposal for a few months back, located off 98th Ave and 880 (on the Oakland/San Leandro border), is back on the market. Their broker called us! We submitted a new proposal last week and expect to have discussions with the owner over the next few weeks. So, keep your fingers crossed on this one.
Second, we received an announcement from the...

Well, it has been a month or since the last update, and we still don’t have good news to report. We have submitted LOIs for multiple properties and without any success. We found one property that the owner was open to working with us, but when he received multiple offers asking for less “free rent” and without the need to get a city approval for the project, his financial interests won over his personal interests. I will be recommending to the Board that we need to...

The news to report is not positive. The property search we conducted in June and July was unsuccessful. Of the properties we identified that had potential, one was leased and another was determined to have insufficient parking. After further discussion with our broker we elected to switch to a new broker. We met the broker, Newmark Cornish & Carey on Aug 6. They already had a potential list of properties to check out. We narrowed the list to 6-7 properties (San Leandro,...

I recently returned from a bonspiel at the new Coyotes Curling Club dedicated ice facility in Tempe, Arizona, which opened this past spring. The facility is simple and “bare bones” at this point, but the ice is great and the community is amazing. They worked hard to get the club that they have now - it took over a year and multiple fall-throughs to finally sign a lease, many of their club members gave money to the club as donations, bonds, and no-interest loans, and...